European Left Party

Richard Dunphy is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of DundeeLuke March is Chair of Post-Soviet and Comparative Politics, Head of Politics and International Relations and Deputy Director of the Princess Dashkova Russian Centre at the University of Edinburgh

• Introduction1 EU party politics and the role of the transnational parties2 Radical left parties and European integration: the legacy of history 3 The origins and emergence of the European Left Party4 The organisation, structure and political presence of the European Left Party5 Programmatic and policy coherence and development6 The EL as the ‘nexus of networks’? Developing relations with the movements and broader European radical left 7 The EL in comparative context: organisational and programmatic developments among left-of-centre TNPsConclusion Bibliography

‘Can the radical left somehow bend the European project to its purposes? That’s one of the main questions arising from a new book by Richard Dunphy and Luke March, two of the few Anglophone academics who have given radical-left parties serious attention. Their latest work looks at the experience of the European Left Party, a transnational party formed in 2004 by some of Europe’s leading RLPs to coordinate their efforts. It opens out into a wider picture of the contemporary radical left and its approach to European integration.’ Jacobin